Jelly Bean update not looking likely for most 2011 Xperia handsets, according to Sony rep

Sony has done an excellent job keeping Xperia users up to date on the progress of delivering timely Android updates as of late, but with such transparency does not always come good news. While the majority of Sony’s 2011 and 2012 lineup should see Ice Cream Sandwich sooner or later, a rep on the company’s UK Facebook page confirmed that there are no plans to bring Jelly Bean to older handsets. Namely, the Xperia Mini Pro and Xperia Arc S, the latter of which ranks as one of Sony’s highest-specced handsets of 2011, casting doubt as to whether or not any phones from the manufacturer released last year will see Android 4.1.

If there is any silver lining to the announcement, the same rep confirmed that Ice Cream Sandwich was recently finalized for the Sony Xperia S, so an update to the relatively new handset should be coming shortly. But so as not to get people too excited, it was also revealed that there has been no progress on a Jelly Bean update for the Xperia S at this time.

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I hope the 5 nexus phones rumor ends up being true and we HOPEFULLY can avoid all this “no more updates” drama and get better options with the nexus range.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_NTFVCEQWL3DB4U3OTK547SHMQI Man H

with all the bashing android gets for being fragmented, all parties involved do little to remedy that situation. I hate Apple with a passion but they are least look at their iCrap as an investment their consumers make and ensure they at least get a few upgrades before bricking your crap.

I still think Google needs to make phone devs and carriers somewhat responsible for upgrades for at least 2 years with the life of the phone. Google should force devs, dangling some sort of carrot over their head for complying. Free sharing of patents for those who comply? Subsidies? Something.

Andrew torres

More then 2yrs boss….My Evo 4G from 2010 runs Android 4.0 pretty fine. Its the damn custom UI’s that they want to force on to these handsets which eat up RAM. If google says phones running a processor at 1Ghz with 512 or 1GB of ram can run these versions of android why they cant continue development is beyond me. Yea yea “well they want you to upgrade or buy their latest and greatest”. Devs online have done a spectacular job doing what the manufacturers couldnt do. I would love to see the companies give drivers for hardware like the Front facing cameras and 4G radios so that my Evo 4G can continue running these versions. It is good for one more update to ICS officially from the manufacturer as long as they dont push Sense into it. Since the devs are pulling this off all Manufacturers can show a lil support to the online community. ICS and JB would run perfectly on most devices that came out two years ago. but once again thats “Hope” floating. So the thing about it unoptimized is crap…much respect AOKP, CM, and independent developers of Android Versions because they have optimized it to a point where it can run on multiple devices.

Kaostheory

Really? Apple adds one feature and they called it a major update! Ios still hasn’t caught up to android 2.0 that has live wallpaper, free turn by turn, haptic feedback, etc. If you want a lot less but like to brag that your phone always gets updated by all means get an iphone. Myself I’d rather have better specs and more features even if I’m not on the latest os.

Abhijeet Mishra

I really think Sony should update all 2011 devices updated to Android 4.0 to Jelly Bean as well because frankly, Android 4.0 really slows those devices down, so Jelly Bean with Project Butter should smooth things up for those unlucky enough to have updated to Android 4.0 on their 2011 Xperia devices. Gingerbread was quite a lot smoother on them, despite media’s claims on Ice Cream Sandwich having better performance, which unfortunately isn’t the case on these aging single-core 1GHz devices. Android 4.0 was just too unoptimized and more a design experiment than a performance enhancing one. It’s fine as stock Android, but once you put customization on it like the manufacturers do, bye bye smoothness. Jelly Bean and its smoothness will do so much more for these older devices..

Sondrek17

The problem is nlt the android OS, but all the manufacturers adding their own touch and messing with the droid. If sony decided to release pure jellybeans the phones might have been able to run the OS, same goes for everybody else. As we all know, rooting makes it possible for nearly any phone to run any OS. Personaly I think Sony phones are terrible, I hate the screen technology, UI and the designs.